i am realizing lately that i have a love/hate relationship with many things.
writing.
eating well and exercising.
being financially responsible.
the city of ithaca, cornell, and the students.
right now i am in love with ithaca. i am even in love with collegetown, which is the one place in ithaca i avoid on purpose for most of the year. i honestly think that the whole time i have lived in ithaca, i have been to collegetown under ten times. i can even tell you what i went for. once for the tea house. once for vietnamese coffee. a handful of times to see jeffy when he worked at city styles.
and i went last night because i was craving a hazelnut latte after 9 pm.
do you know that the coffeeshops at the bottom of the hill close at 9? and i'm being generous, here - that's the one that stays open late. and...psst... i hate their coffee. and the vibe in pretty much all of their locations. this is not like nashville, where i can go to fido at 10 pm, just to get out of the house and sit in a coffeeshop.
so, i was getting geared up to do the unthinkable. that's right, people. starbucks. in a town with a bajillion local coffeeshops, i was about to go to starbucks. eric, in a moment of genius, suggested a place called stellas in collegetown. he said, "i think you'd really like this place."
it was awesome. maybe the best part? i walked up to the counter and asked how late they were open. the gangly guy behind the bar said, "1 am." my mouth must have dropped open, because he said, "yeah, we're that kind of place."
1 am on a sunday night. i'm still kind of giddy about it. and the vibe was perfect, and i found a dark little table right next to the window.
and i don't know if it was just my latte-aquiring success, or maybe the fact that eric knows me well enough to know that that stupid place was EXACTLY the kind of place i would fall in love with, or maybe the dimness of everything... but i was completely sucked in to collegetown last night. i felt like i was actually in a city for a few moments. it was busy. diverse.
i actually heard other languages being spoken.
i was drinking a delicious latte, and i mean j&j's market delicious, here, folks.
i was with my man.
i was watching the youngsters back and forth on the street outside. i felt the energy and the excitement.
it was the best night out i've had in ithaca in quite some time.
